Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics and University Professor at Columbia University, was Chairman of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers and served as Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. His most recent book, co-authored with Bruce Greenwald, is&nbs… read more

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CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphBut then the US Federal Reserve hid these weaknesses by engineering a housing bubble that led to a consumption boom. It will take years to overcome the excessive indebtedness and real-estate overhang that resulted.Read more

@Mark Pitts: Why do you lump socialist governments in with totalitarian communists? Isn't that a bit disingenuous? I would hardly call Sweden a murderous country, nor most of the rest of western Europe, yet these countries are mostly socialistic in their governing, in practice, if not always in theory. It's not helpful to the debate to have people on the Right continually misusing terms like "liberal" and "socialism". Read more

The article references a "war of choice." I'd agree. It was an American war of choice. The majority of the Democrats in the House voted "Yes" for the war, as did the majority of the Democrats in the Senate. When the bill for $100 billion to fund the war came up for vote, 37 of 49 Democrats in the Senate voted "Yes". Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton were among the most outspoken supporters. Years later it's laid at Bush's feet by plotting souls such as yourself, and accepted as gospel by the willingly naive. Fortunately, facts are much easier to access today than they once were, making liberal hogwash easier to dispel. We collectively share responsibility for Iraq. A country, it should be noted, that is now free from the oppression of a sadistic dictator, and that has a representative government and a growing economy. Perspective, Mr. Stiglitz. Crank up the prescription on those coke-bottle lenses and get ya some. Read more

Excellent article!! It's a nice reminder about the catastrophic mistakes that the Bush administration made in their foreign policy, something that many Republicans have forgotten about, not to mention many public commentators and the American electorate in general. - Kamadia.ca Read more

"... together with the Bush tax cuts, is a key reason why America went from a fiscal surplus of 2% of GDP when Bush was elected to its parlous deficit and debt position today."

This is the glaring truth that the GOP manages to obfuscate, and gives the lie to the ability of the current Republican Party to be fiscally responsible. Indeed, if one accesses the GAO figures for 1980-present, the so-called Reagan Revolution of no-tax-and-spend-even-more is what has massively eroded government finances. That Obama has done so well in spite of inheriting this horrid mess is a testament to the value of reason and clear thinking over extreme partisan politicking. Read more

I’m mostly a fan of Stiglitz’s work but I just started reading the “Cost of Inequality”. I’ve not finished the preface yet but something comes to mind as Stiglitz discusses the shift to embracing a value set that is devoid of a moral compass. Somewhat recent work in psychology found that the concentration of sociopaths, those who lack empathy and simply don’t feel others pain as the rest of us do, increases the higher up the corporate ladder the samples were taken. This is discussed on a “Through the Wormhole” episode on the Science channel. Allegedly at least some of this behavior is genetic. This begs the question of whether or not top execs have dumped their moral values or are simply people following their own self interest and naturally finding their way to massive wealth and power. Though, perhaps the behavior can be learned as the rewards are witnessed. Read more

To Mark Pitts: do we still get to make John Bircher logical fallacies? "It's either capitalism or the commies, boys."

I doubt a genetic predisposition to sociopathology. Most elites run in elite circles all their lives or adapted as they climb the ladder. There are no shortage of classic capitalist texts that proclaim the necessity of dismissing all personal considerations and letting the market and strategic decisions aimed at market dominance to guide ALL thinking. The is the ideological underpinning of the amorality rampant in today's economics and economic policy-making. There is a tax deductible, charitable contribution available to any rich person or corporation who still has some concern for others.

Anyway, as economics is a subset of politics there are all manner of overarching policy directions that might restore a sense of fair play and public good to what has become a swamp of greed. Read more

Joschka Fischer
laments the fate of the European Union in the wake of the latest round of the Greek drama.

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